One Winter Day
by ferretWARLORD
Summary: A family of rats sees a hare approach their small shack, and reacts in fear. Small little one shot for christmas, please read and review.


One Winter Day

It was the middle of winter in Mossflower when the hare had been spotted making his way down the bath towards their house. At first the family of rats all assumed he was just passing by, but that idea was completely crushed when the hare smiled and called out to them, making them all squeak in fear.

Why was that hare coming here? What did he want of them? Was he here to kill them!?

Husband and wife both exchange fearful glances, and their two daughters started to whimper. They could now here the fresh _crunch crunch crunch _of the hares feet in the snow.

What _could _they do?! For all they knew if a woodlander was coming to your house, it meant trouble. The hare was now close enough that he could see the glinting medals on his left breast. Great. Hes a Long Patrol Hare. Just great.

He was now close enough that he could see the young, youthful features of the animal. The rat mother immediately swept her two children into her arms and ran into the only other room they had, ordering them under the bed. The male of the family growled and shifted his footpaws around on the warm dirt floor, glancing over at his wife, he ordered her to stay with the children.

Grabbing his crossbow he pulled back the string and shakily placed a bolt in place. Maybe he could scare the Long Patrol captain away? Hell, any beast would think twice if a crossbow was pointed at their mid drift!

_Clunk... Clunk... Clunk..._

The hare was now on their steps. He heard several loud knocks and then the hares voice, which of course had that odd accent that all hares possessed.

"Open up wot! This is Captain Longear Silver, ordered by the newly appointed Badger Lord Wrathpaw to take you to Salamandastron!"

Wrathpaw? Since when the hell did they appoint a new badger... No, it was probably just a sick trick that badger Manthril was playing!

"Ge away!" The rat called out from behind the door, angrily and boldly, "We don't want to take part in any of this badgery nonsense and such!"

The hare seemed taken back by this, and some what hurt, and he tried to explain, but the rat wouldn't let him.

"But- sir, your house... no offense, but its a wreck."

"Yeah well its our wreck!" The rat snapped back, growled he got the crossbow up on his shoulder, aiming at the door. "And were not leaving!"

"But we simply wish to-" Once again the rat simply ignored his offer for help, and the hare gave up and went away.

Watching the woodlander finally leave, he breathed a sigh of relief and called to his family, who rushed out of the bedroom and they all had a nice, long, family hug.

"Oooh daddy! Dat was so bwave!" One of the small rat kits said, burying her face in his leg. He smiled and tussled her hair, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, yeah, you showed dat bunny who's boss!" The other said, giggling. His wife didn't say a thing, she simply smiled approvingly and wrapped her muzzle around his as they shared a long, deep kiss. Of course the two daughters said a disgusted "eeeeeww" simultaneously and ran back into the bedroom, being the young ones that they were.

* * *

It was supper time, and that of course meant cold pigeon and berries, like all the other meals they had had this month. The father sighed as his children whined and complained about having to have the same food, but their mother quickly persuaded them to eat and be strong, or the big bad badger Manthril will get you!

Manthril. Now that was a name hated by all vermin and even some woodlanders. Being the son of the badger lord of course gave you natural born rights to the throne, and none of the rats really knew what happened during his child hood that made him such an evil, murderous monster. All vermin knew is that they needed to stay as far as possible from the badgers mountain, and keep a low profile.

And of course, the poor rats didn't really know about this when the moved in to this house, the closest one to the mountain and unfortunately the only one available at the time. And gods how he wished he had picked some place close to Redwall, or maybe even _in Redwall._

Sadly, that idea was dashed due to the fact that Redwall has been through several wars with vermin, and their presence there would probably cause only trouble for his family.

Now don't get the poor vermin wrong, he had attempted to leave, in fact, it was last year that he had tried to leave this gods forsaken place. But of course that was crushed due to raiders, a group of savage weasels and ferrets, who ransacked his house and stolen all his money save for few items.

Thankfully he had taken his crossbow with him on the picnic, or they would of all starved to death!

He smiled at the fact that they had actually made it this far on what they had been givin', and was about to dig in on his own plate of food when a loud knock was heard on the door. The entire family snapped to attention and all stared at the door as a loud, booming voice echoed through the small home.

"Open up. This is the Badger Lord." The rat's blood when ice cold and a tremor of fear shot through his body. His fork fell from his grasp, falling to the dirt with a dull thud. Letting out a choked gasp of fear, he turned to his wife and children only to find that they had all went to the bedroom again.

Growling he grabbed his crossbow and kicked the door open, taking aim at the largest damned woodlander he had ever seen. His body trembling all over he let out a loud yell of rage and pulled the trigger.

_Tick. _

He pulled it again.

_Tick._

Was the damned thing Jammed!? And then it hit him. Lowering the weapon he looked at the uncocked bow string. He had forgot to load it.

The crossbow crunched lightly in the snow as it fell from his paws. A light flurry of snow began to fall on both the badger and the rat, woodlander and vermin. He felt and hot tear trickle down his cheek as he watched the badger un-sheath an ungodly large broad sword from his back, and then the large beast lifted it above his head, getting ready to stab down upon him.

The rat squeezed his eyes shut as the massive blade was brought down, and was stabbed into the dirt and snow in front of him.

"I come in peace, my fat tailed friend." The badger spoke solemnly and kindly, placing a large paw on his shoulder. "The monster you knew as Manthril is no more, so you have no need to live in this hell."

The father glanced back at his pitiful shack that he and his family had called home, then glanced back at the large badger, whose cloak (which could of basically been an over sized tent) was covered now covered in snow. The badger sighed and before the rat could even protest, order his hares inside.

"EEEEK!"

"Miss, we are here to-"

_CLANK!_

"AWWG!"

That hare stumbled out of the house, clutching his head.

_WA-CLUNK!_

_That _hare came hopping on one foot, clutching his now throbbing knee. A few moments later one triumphant hare _finally_ came out with the rat mother struggling and gnashing her teeth, her children latched onto his legs, knawing away at his calves.

Gritting his teeth the private eventually let out a yell and released the mother, who kicked him in a place no beast should be kicked and scooped up her children.

Leaving the moaning woodlander in a fit of pain and agony as he clutched his privates, the rat wife ran over to her husband.

The badger watched the family all get reunited, and smirked.

"Well, now that your all here..." He knelt down in the snow in an attempt to make himself seem less frightening, which worked a little. "I want to make a deal with you."

Releasing himself from his families warm embrace he walked up to the kneeling badger, looking into his wise, dark eyes. His wife's voice was a hissing whisper as she protested, trying to pull him back, but to no avail. Crossing his arms he rather boldly, if not nervously, said,

"O-okay, what kind of deal." The badger gave him a warm, kind smile before answering.

"Simple. I see that your wife is a strong beast and my men are clearly no match for her." Several hares tried not to protest as the rat wife giggled and shyly turned away. "So, if you promise not to hurt any of us anymore we'll find you some new accomodations."

Now this whole day had been one big thrill ride for the rat, but now this was just getting crazy. He looked back at his family and saw that they were all as equally shocked as he was, his daughters even let out an awed "woooow" under their breaths.

"U-u-uh... th-that would be great!" The rat stuttered happily, and the badger gleefully grabbed the rats paw and gentley shook it, replying happily,

"Alright. Please follow us then. Me and my hares will personally escort you to your new home."

**I got bored so I decided to right a happy little story here about a rat family that lives in poverty. **


End file.
